April 16, 2010
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State men's tennis team closes the regular season with a pair of matches this weekend, beginning with an 11:00 a.m. contest at Detroit on Saturday, April 17. The match was pushed back one hour to allow for the weather to improved.
CSU then closes the regular season with a 2:00 p.m. nonconference match against Buffalo. The match is slated to be played at the Malaga Tennis Club on the CSU campus, but could be moved to River Oaks Racquet Club in the event of inclement weather.
The Vikings enter the final weekend of the regular season with a 16-6 overall mark and a perfect 6-0 mark in the Horizon League, assuring CSU of the No. 1 seed in next weekend's Horizon League Championship.
The Vikings have won 22 consecutive matches against Horizon League foes, a streak that dates back to CSU's last loss against a league opponent, a 4-3 setback to Butler on April 6, 2008.
"This is a very important weekend for us," head coach Brian Etzkin said. "Although we have clinched the No. 1 seed in the league tournament, we have to come to play both matches because we want to head into the tournament with some momentum. We have been playing with a lot of confidence the last few weeks and need to continue that."
The Vikings won all three of their matches last weekend, including league wins over Wright State (6-1) and Butler (5-2) and a 7-0 nonconference victory over Case Western.
"We lost the doubles point against Butler and that was disappointing to see because it gave them a lot of confidence and momentum," Etzkin said. "We didn't play with a lot of energy or passion and that is something we need to work on this weekend. Although we didn't play our best doubles against Butler, we were able to come back and win five of the six singles matches with some good, solid tennis."
Junior John Haley was selected as the Horizon League Player of the Week after winning all five of his matches. He posted wins at No. 6 singles against both Wright State and Butler and moved up to win at No. 5 singles versus Case Western. He also teamed with Rob Fox at No. 2 doubles to win against WSU and Butler.
"John played really well last weekend and continues to gain more and more confidence every time he takes the court," Etzkin said.
Senior Phil Orno continues to lead the team in singles play with a 27-9 record and has a chance to eclipse the 30 win mark. He will face Detroit's Pjotrs Necajevs at No. 1 singles on Saturday in a match-up of the last two Horizon League Player of the Year award winners.
Orno won the award in 2008, while Necajevs won it last season.
The winner of Saturday's match could also have the inside track of picking up this year's honor.
Orno has won 97 career singles matches, needing three more wins to reach 100 for his career.
Orno is joined by Rob Fox (25), Yannick Goossens (22) and Ryan Hamning (23) who have all won at least 20 matches. It's the first time in program history that four players have won 20 singles contests.
The Vikings will return to action next weekend as the No. 1 seed in the Horizon League Championship in Indianapolis, Ind. CSU's first match will be on Saturday (April 24) at 10:30 a.m. against the winner of a first round match from Friday.
